THIS IS NOT A PIPE
Representation is a paradox, who observes and who creates? It is a semantic game of deception. This artwork proposes the representation of selfies and self-portraits of the author as autonomous objects, which can transmit different feelings and generate multiple meanings. The inspiration for this piece is the work “The Treachery of Images,” 1929, by painter Magritte. The pipe is not a pipe, just as the portrait is not the person portrayed.
In the second instance, the work also assumes the self-portrait and its representation as an object of investigation. It is called “The digital self” -a character I repeatedly use in my set of artistic works- who navigates its existence and seeks new ways of relations. She is fragile. She recites manifestos and gestures that are still human, and she has memories of past images that cannot concretize in her original form.
Hologram, Performance, Manifesto, Polaroid lift, variable
measures, 2021
FOR THE TIME BEING
The work re-imagines the digital representation of a person through different objects. Dr. Villacis trained the computer with artificial intelligence, so the attributes extracted from an image bank of objects such as flowers and human portraits are used to reconstruct a selfie in real time.
The digital self is inside an image. Consequently, it will become an object because the artwork reconstructs the face (or an idea of a face) and gives it a new meaning, a new self, which moves away from human significance—this piece dialogues with concepts from “object-oriented ontology” proposed by Graham Harman. The human trains the machine and gets carried away by it. Finally, the machine decides. The inspiration for this piece comes from the notion that objects have their existence and that technology is appropriating every aspect of human life.
Hologram, Performance, Manifesto, Polaroid lift, variable
measures, 2021
OBJECT-SELFIE-MACHINE
What is more important? The technological device, the person, or the selfie? The artwork raises this question when facing the audience to take a selfie as part of an artistic installation -it is not just any digital self-portrait-. It is the creation of a new visual context – born from the research archives of the different departments of the EPN (Escuela Politécnica Nacional del Ecuador) – in an analog-digital-interactive piece.
Through the use of a deep convolutional network and the training of the algorithm with photographs of thousands of people, the program recognizes the person and isolates them from its background; creating a new picture, a real-time techno collage with the ability to be shared instantly through Instagram @epnselfie
The idea stems from a personal approach to the selfie as an object of self-significance, which goes beyond interactivity with human beings or what they do or understand about it.
Technical description:
The technical challenge of this project was to identify and classify an image in real-time (semantic segmentation). The model used is based on the methodology of L. Chen, G Papandreou (2016). This model builds a maximum-hope (EM) estimator from a semi-supervised learning process. It uses a deep convolutional network and training data set with hand-labeled images.
*This art piece was commissioned for the “Reprogramar la(s) Materia(s), an Art Show part of the celebrations for the 150 years of the creation of the EPN, October 2019.“Object-selfie-machine” would not have been possible without the support, collaboration, and hard work of the following people:
Work team:
Scientific advisor
David Villacis, Doctoral Student in Applied Mathematics
Laboratories that provided the images:
CIERHI
Acoustics Laboratory – Pamela Rivera
Meb Demex – Alicia del Carmen Guevara
Paleontology – José Luis Román
With special thanks to:
Ana María Garzón Mantilla – Curator
Juan Carlos de los Reyes
David Villacis
Carla Manciati
María Fernanda Orquera
Allyson Villamar
Sergio Sarango
https://artecontemporaneoecuador.com/darte-cap-5-reprogramar-la-materia/
INTERFACED NATURE
My multimedia installation, “Interfaced nature,” explores digital mediums in a material approach. It brings together a video, a written manifesto, and sculptural work.
The sculpture is a light box made of copper-clad printed circuit boards with reproduced selfies.
The video is a performance for the camera, revealing an awkward relationship between direct contact with nature and a green screen that plays the mediator between the confinement of self and the capacities of new technologies. The screen glitches due to saturation and over usage, as my online persona struggles with this overload.
In addition, the installation gathers synthetic objects: silicone hands and printed screenshots, drawing a fine line between fiction and reality.
This project was exhibited as part of the LCC Ma Photography Degree Show called “Threefold”, that took take place at Ugly Duck Gallery, 47-49 Tanner Street, London, SE1 3PL. Exhibition opening times: December 1st – December 6th, 2016.
Installation: video, sculpture, objects, performance, manifesto in iPad, 2016